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From the Senator’s Desk

Courtesy of the Senate Republican Conference:

June Jobs Report: 8.2 Percent Unemployment

The Obama Economy Isn’t Working

• Today’s jobs report confirms what millions of Americans already know: the Obama economy isn’t working.

•  President Obama’s failed policies have led to the worst recovery since WWII.

•  Republicans have solutions to grow the economy and help create jobs.

Millions continue to suffer under the Obama economy:

• The president promised his nearly $1-trillion stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, but June marks 41 straight months of unemployment at or above 8 percent.

• Over 23 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed. Almost 5.4 million have been out of work for over one year. 

• A less-than-expected 80,000 jobs were created in June, well below the 150,000 new jobs needed each month just to keep up with population growth.

President Obama’s policies have led to the worst recovery since WWII:

• Over the past 28 months, President Obama has the worst private sector job creation record of any recovery since WWII.

• Under the president’s policies, GDP growth is the slowest of any recovery since WWII.

Republicans have a better way:

• Reform the tax code to fuel economic growth.

•  Increase energy security to create homegrown American jobs.

•  Cut reckless government spending.

• Stop job-killing regulations.

• Repeal ObamaCare and enact common-sense, step-by-step reforms that protect Americans’ access to the care they need, from the doctor they choose, at a lower cost.

On Twitter

Only 80,000 jobs added in June.Unemployment still 8.2%I participated in this documentary about Joblessness: youtu.be/pRvL5VSK3q4 #jobs

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) July 6, 2012

Wow. Obama has used the EXACT SAME LINE 30 times to explain away bad #jobs numbers bit.ly/N3jzz2

— Brian Phillips (@SenLeeComs) July 6, 2012

For the best on-site and breaking news reporting from #Utah, follow @BenWinslow, @KSLSharaPark, and @KSLbbruce #FF

— Emily Bennion (@SenLeePressSec) July 6, 2012

Jobs report "kind of disastrous", employment "not even keeping up with demographics": bit.ly/N4iVTv #ObamaIsntWorking #tcot #tlot

— Joe Tauke (@SenLeeResearch) July 6, 2012

Around the Water Cooler

GOP teachers balk at Obama-centric NEA convention

It had all the trappings of a re-election rally: thousands packing a convention center, Barack Obama T-shirts, videos celebrating the health care law, and a wall-size banner with encouraging messages to the incumbent president.

June jobs report misses expectations, unemployment 8.2%

U.S. payrolls expanded by just 80,000 net jobs in June keeping the unemployment rate flat at 8.2 percent, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

Today’s Agenda

Today, Senator Lee will appear on the Fox News Channel special Out of Work, which will air at 9:00 PM EDT (7:00 MDT).

From the Senator’s Desk

On Twitter

RT @streetjon: And one #Utah #GOP senator doesn't think #Obamacare is a tax. @SenMikeLee shares his thoughts. cnsnews.com/news/article/r…

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) July 2, 2012

51% favor #fullrepeal bit.ly/MOw0Pa

— Brian Phillips (@SenLeeComs) July 2, 2012

@KSLSharaPark @BenWinslow thanks for the great fire updates. You two stay safe out there! Thoughts and prayers are with those impacted

— Emily Bennion (@SenLeePressSec) July 3, 2012

75% of #Obamacare costs will be paid by those making under $120k per year: bit.ly/QPaT2c #middleclass #Constitution #ACA #tcot #tlot

— Joe Tauke (@SenLeeResearch) July 3, 2012

Around the Water Cooler

Celebrating Independence Day without breaking the bank

The Fourth of July is almost here but celebrating Independence Day doesn't have to be pricey.

Government Motors: As GM shares near record low, taxpayer loss on bailout rises to $35 billion

To quote Lando Calrissian, this deal's getting worse all the time.

This morning the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  But I believe it will ultimately prove to be a hollow and short-lived victory for the health care law.  

I believe it will prove hollow because the Supreme Court was able to find the individual mandate constitutional only through a series of extraordinary logical gymnastics that led the Court to conclude that the mandate is actually a tax.  But, of course, members of Congress did not vote to pass the ACA as a tax.  Nor did the American people understand it to be a tax.  Indeed, President Obama himself flatly stated that the individual mandate “is absolutely not a tax increase”—that “nobody” considers it a tax.

As Justice Kennedy noted in his dissent, “[i]mposing a tax through judicial legislation inverts the constitutional scheme, and places the power to tax in the branch of government least accountable to the citizenry.”  There is simply no way that the ACA would have become law had the American public and their representatives understood it as a tax.

As a result, I believe the practical effect of today’s Supreme Court decision upholding the mandate will be short-lived.  As numerous public opinion polls confirm, the majority of citizens already oppose the individual mandate.  As more Americans come to understand the individual mandate as a middle-class tax hike, it will only become more unpopular.  According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, at least 75 percent of the penalties or “taxes” imposed by the individual mandate will fall on hard-working Americans who make less than $250,000.  In making choices at the ballot box this November, I believe the American people simply will not stand for the ACA to remain the law of the land.

When we look back at today’s decision in the coming months and years, it may ultimately be regarded less as a victory for the Affordable Care Act and instead as an important recognition and validation of the freedoms protected by our constitutional structure.  The Court’s decision today upheld the individual mandate as a tax, but it also validated fundamental principles of limited government and federalism.   

A majority of the justices rightfully concluded that Congress had exceeded its regulatory authority under the Commerce Clause by attempting to impose the individual mandate as a government directive.  As Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion explained, “The power to regulate commerce presupposes the existence of commercial activity to be regulated. . . . Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority. . . . That is not the country the Framers of our Constitution envisioned.” 

In so holding, the majority opinion expressly embraced the limiting implications of the distinction between activity and inactivity, put forward by critics of the Act.  The Court noted that although its Commerce Clause jurisprudence throughout much of the last century had been notoriously expansive, even at its most expansive in cases like Wickard v. Filburn, it had always limited Congress to regulating preexisting activity.  The ACA, by contrast, impermissibly attempted to reach inactivity.  The Court refused to countenance such limitless congressional regulatory power. 

Today’s ruling also includes an important precedent upholding the right of the States not to be coerced into administering federal regulatory programs.  The Court held that the manner in which the ACA sought to expand Medicaid violates the Constitution and our nation’s system of federalism.  The federal government may not bully the States into expanding Medicaid coverage by threatening to take away all preexisting Medicaid funding.  As the federal government increasingly attempts to circumvent the Constitution by coercing States through funding threats, this aspect of the Court’s opinion may prove to have enormous significance.

For now, the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ACA’s individual mandate as a tax puts the call to action squarely back on the people’s elected leaders in Congress.  As the majority opinion reminded, the Court “possesses neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments.  Those decisions are entrusted to our nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them.”

Without a single Republican vote, Congress enacted an intrusive and burdensome mandate on the American people—a mandate that is hugely unpopular and has the potential to do our country great harm.  The individual mandate violates basic American freedoms and personal liberty in a way no Congress had before attempted in the 225 year-history of our Republic.

With a new administration and new leadership in Congress, we can repeal the ACA and restore individual liberty to all Americans.